Development and Validation of a Brief Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale: The DERS-16

“Emotion Regulation The original Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer 2004) is a 36item self-report measure that assesses individuals’ typical levels of emotion dysregulation across six domains: nonacceptance of negative emotions, inability to engage in goaldirected behaviors when distressed…”

“Finally, the absence of significant correlations between both DERS versions and the FFMQ observe subscale is in-line with previous research (Baer et al., 2006), and suggests that the omission of items from the lack of emotional awareness subscale from the DERS-16 did not negatively influence the strength of its relati…”

“The DASS-21 demonstrates adequate reliability and construct and discriminant validity (Henry and Crawford 2005).”

“Emotion regulation broadly refers to the intrinsic and extrinsic processes involved in monitoring, evaluating, and modulating emotional reactions in order to accomplish one’s goals (Thompson 1994).”

“for scale development in general and the development of short forms of scales in particular (Hinkin 1998; Smith et al. 2000), we used independent samples for scale development and evaluation, as well as independent administrations of the short version and original version of the DERS.”

“Although there are several empirically-supported measures of various dimensions of emotion regulation difficulties (e.g., emotional nonacceptance, lack of emotional awareness and clarity; Bagby et al. 1994; Hofmann and Kashdan 2010; Simons and Gaher 2005) and putatively adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation stra…”

“The Anxiety Sensitivity Index–3 (ASI-3; Taylor et al., 2007) is an 18-item self-report measure that assesses the fear of anxiety-related sensations due to physical, cognitive, and social concerns.”

“consistency and criterion-based validity across a range of clinical and community settings (Reinert and Allen 2007).”

“The White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI; Wegner and Zanakos 1994) is a 15-item, self-report measure designed to assess the extent to which individuals suppress, Table 4 Cronbach’s alphas, intercorrelations, and differences between correlation coefficients (r-diff) in Study 2”

“The Affect Intensity Measure (AIM; Larsen & Diener, 1987) is a 40-item self-report measure that assesses trait affect intensity and reactivity.”

“The DSHI has demonstrated good internal consistency, adequate test–retest reliability, and adequate construct, discriminant, and convergent validity among undergraduate student, community adult, and patient samples (Fliege et al. 2006; Gratz 2001; Gratz et al. 2011).”

“This procedure improves the chance of preserving high internal consistency and excluding items with the most error variance while simultaneously maintaining the breadth of the construct being measured (Smith et al., 2000).”

“Confidence intervals for differences between correlations of the original 36-item DERS and DERS-16 with the relevant self-report measures were calculated using a method for comparing overlapping correlations for dependent groups (Zou 2007).”

“Findings that none of the items from the lack of emotional awareness subscale was retained on the basis of the item-total correlations are consistent with past research indicating that this subscale is less strongly associated with the overall DERS score than the other subscales (Neumann, van Lier, Gratz, & Koot, 2010…”

“2006), major depression (Ehring et al. 2010), eating disorders (Whiteside et al.”

“However, it is important to note that although previous studies of the original DERS revealed gender differences in some of the DERS subscales (e.g., Gratz & Roemer, 2004; Neumann et al., 2010; Weinberg & Klonsky, 2009), these differences have not generally been found for the total score on this measure (Gratz & Roeme…”

“, 2014), and behavioral (e.g., persistence on laboratory-based distress-inducing tasks; Gratz et al., 2006; Tull, Gratz, Latzman, Kimbrel, & Lejuez, 2010) indices of emotion regulation.”

“2010; Weinberg and Klonsky 2009), these differences have not generally been found for the total score on this measure (Gratz and Roemer 2004; Tull et al. 2007; Weinberg and Klonsky 2009).”

“The BEQ demonstrates adequate convergent and discriminative validity (Gross and John 1997).”

“Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that lack of emotional clarity (a dimension of emotion regulation that is represented in the DERS- 16) is more relevant to both psychopathology and the overarching emotion regulation construct than lack of emotional awareness when emotional awareness and clarity are separated as…”

“Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that lack of emotional clarity (a dimension of emotion regulation that is represented in the DERS-16) is more relevant to both psychopathology and the overarching emotion regulation construct than lack of emotional awareness when emotional awareness and clarity are separated as i…”

“2009) and in predicting maladaptive behaviors (Gratz and Tull 2010; Messman-Moore et al. 2010).”

“The Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ; Gross and John 1995) is a 16-item self-report measure that assesses three facets of trait emotional expressivity: positive expressivity, negative expressivity, and impulse strength.”

“Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that lack of emotional clarity (a dimension of emotion regulation that is represented in the DERS-16) is more relevant to both psychopathology and the overarching emotion regulation construct than lack of emotional awareness when emotional awareness and clarity are separated as i…”

“This finding is consistent with evidence that the lack of emotional awareness subscale may be less relevant to the overarching construct of emotion regulation difficulties as assessed by the DERS (Bardeen et al., 2012).”

“80; Muris, Merckelbach, & Horselenberg, 1996) and construct validity (Muris et al., 1996; Schmidt et al., 2009; Wegner & Zanakos, 1994) of this measure.”

“that was developed to be applicable to a wide variety of psychological difficulties and relevant to clinical applications and treatment development (Gratz 2007; Gratz and Tull 2010).”

“Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that lack of emotional clarity (a dimension of emotion regulation that is represented in the DERS-16) is more relevant to both psychopathology and the overarching emotion regulation construct than lack of emotional awareness when emotional awareness and clarity are separated as i…”

“The DSHI has demonstrated good internal consistency, adequate test–retest reliability, and adequate construct, discriminant, and convergent validity among undergraduate student, community adult, and patient samples (Fliege et al., 2006; Gratz, 2001; Gratz et al., 2011).”

“Although there are several empirically-supported measures of various dimensions of emotion regulation difficulties (e.g., emotional nonacceptance, lack of emotional awareness and clarity; Bagby et al. 1994; Hofmann and Kashdan 2010; Simons and Gaher 2005) and putatively adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation stra…”

“Ott, & Nandrino, 2014), neurological (e.g., amygdala habituation; Goodman et al., 2014), and behavioral (e.”

“Finally, scores on the DERS have been found to change in response to treatments that target emotion regulation, including an emotion regulation group therapy (Gratz et al. 2015; Gratz et al. 2014) and dialectical behavior therapy (Ben-Porath et al.”

“The DERS has also demonstrated associations with biological (e.g., magnitude of rostral anterior cingulate cortex activation; Li et al., 2008), psychophysiological (e.”

“The Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST; Pfohl et al. 2009) is a 15-item self-report measure of BPD symptom severity, or the degree of impairment from each of the 9 BPD criteria during the past month.”

“Although this may limit the amount of information one can obtain from the DERS-16, there is a substantial amount of research that supports the utility of using a global score to evaluate emotion regulation difficulties within various forms of psychopathology (e.g., Kuo, Khoury, Metcalfe, Fitzpatrick, & Goodwill, 2015;…”

“Findings that none of the items from the lack of emotional awareness subscale was retained on the basis of the item-total correlations are consistent with past research indicating that this subscale is less strongly associated with the overall DERS score than the other subscales (Neumann, van Lier, Gratz, & Koot, 2010…”

“2015), risky sexual behavior (Tull et al. 2012), and purging behavior (Lavender et al.”

“Finally, scores on the DERS have been found to change in response to treatments that target emotion regulation, including an emotion regulation group therapy (Gratz et al. 2015; Gratz et al. 2014) and dialectical behavior therapy (Ben-Porath et al.”

“gy (e.g., Kuo et al. 2015; Stevens et al. 2013; Tull 2006; Tull et al. 2009) and in predicting maladaptive behaviors (Gratz and Tull 2010; Messman-Moore et al.”

“1994; Hofmann and Kashdan 2010; Simons and Gaher 2005) and putatively adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., emotional avoidance, expressive suppression; Gross and John 2003; Taylor et al. 2004), one comprehensive measure of emotion regulation difficulties that has received extensive attention w…”

“In addition, emotion regulation difficulties as assessed by the DERS are related to a number of maladaptive behaviors thought to serve an emotion regulating function, such as deliberate self-harm (Gratz & Roemer, 2008), substance use (Tull, Bardeen, DiLillo, Messman-Moore, & Gratz, 2015), risky sexual behavior (Tull,…”

“The DSHI has demonstrated good internal consistency, adequate test–retest reliability, and adequate construct, discriminant, and convergent validity among undergraduate student, community adult, and patient samples (Fliege et al., 2006; Gratz, 2001; Gratz et al., 2011).”

“In addition, emotion regulation difficulties as assessed by the DERS are related to a number of maladaptive behaviors thought to serve an emotion regulating function, such as deliberate selfharm (Gratz and Roemer 2008), substance use (Tull et al. 2015), risky sexual behavior (Tull et al.”

“80; Muris, Merckelbach, & Horselenberg, 1996) and construct validity (Muris et al., 1996; Schmidt et al., 2009; Wegner & Zanakos, 1994) of this measure.”

“Consistent with past research (Dixon-Gordon et al. 2014; Gratz and Tull 2012; Turner et al. 2013), a deliberate self-harm frequency variable was computed by summing the total number of deliberate selfharm episodes reported in the past 4 months and a deliberate self-harm versatility index was computed by summing the nu…”

“gy (e.g., Kuo et al. 2015; Stevens et al. 2013; Tull 2006; Tull et al. 2009) and in predicting maladaptive behaviors (Gratz and Tull 2010; Messman-Moore et al.”

“Consistent with past research (Dixon-Gordon et al. 2014; Gratz and Tull 2012; Turner et al. 2013), a deliberate self-harm frequency variable was computed by summing the total number of deliberate selfharm episodes reported in the past 4 months and a deliberate self-harm versatility index was computed by summing the nu…”

“2014) and dialectical behavior therapy (Ben-Porath et al. 2014), suggesting that the measure is sensitive to change over time and has utility in treatment outcome research.”

“The TEARS demonstrates good internal consistency and construct validity (Hamilton et al., 2007), and was administered to sample 2 only.”

“Finally, we briefly examined the psychometric properties of three recently published short forms of the DERS (e.g., DERS-16, Bjureberg et al., 2016; DERS-SF, Kaufman et al., 2016; and DERS18, Victor and Klonsky, 2016) to evaluate the extent to which these measures performed comparably to the…”

“- The 16-item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; [51]) was used to indicate ease of affect regulation.”

“Emotion regulation The 16-item version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-16 [69] assessed difficulties in parent emotion regulation.”